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Al Santana Films At BAM

Please join me on Monday, October 1, 2007, 7:00 PM at the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a retrospective of my work.
We’ll be screening excerpts from two long-form films: Voices of The Gods, (1985) and Durban 400, (2003), as well as three short films:

In The Spirit of Peace (2002)

Military Option (2005)

One People (2007)

Voices of The Gods is a documentary about two ancient West African Religions (Yoruba and Akan) that are practiced in the United States today.

Durban 400 produced by The Drammeh Institute and Al Santana Productions, is a documentary that focuses on Reparations for the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. The film follows a group of grass-roots activist to Durban, South Africa for the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism, Xenophia and Related Intolerances where they address the issue of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade and Colonialism as Crimes Against Humanity.

In The Spirit of Peace was produced as part of Third World Newsreel’s Call For Media Action, following the 9/11 attacks. It chronicles a peace march that took place in Brooklyn on September 23, 2001, where members of Brooklyn’s Yoruba and Akan communities made a definitive call for peace in direct contradiction to the message coming from the government and corporate media outlets.

Military Option is collaboration of filmmaker, Rico Speight and Third World Newsreel’s Call For Change initiative. This film looks at military recruiting practices in communities of color.

One People, a collaboration of producer/playwright Laura L. Fowler and Al Santana, takes place against the backdrop of a gentrified Harlem community. The story centers on two sisters who have opposite views about social responsibility and the role of artists. Aliyah, a self-styled revolutionary filmmaker, is producing a documentary about the 1960′s black power movement. Her sister, Valerie, is a poet whose work centers on themes of sensuality and love. They challenge each other on the purity of art and the need for art to inspire social change. Together, they discover a politicized Lorraine Hansberry.

Please visit my website to view clips of the films and other cool stuff.
www.alsantana.com

Best regards and hope to see you on Monday at BAM. General admission is $11. and we’ll also have DVD’s of Voices of The Gods, Durban 400 and One People on sale.

2 thoughts on “Al Santana Films At BAM”

The 761 was the first unit to enlist African-American soldiers to
operate armored vehicles. What the Tuskegee Airmen were to the skies,
the 761st was to land, as they were requested by General George S.
Patton to assist with heavy fighting during the Battle of the Bulge in
WWII. The soldiers of the 761st Tank Battalion fought for 183
consecutive days, in six countries, and with great success despite a
fifty-percent causality rate. They were commonly referred to as
“Eleanor Roosevelt’s Niggers”, but proved themselves to be America’s
Men in what we now call the “Greatest Generation”.

Despite these undeniable accomplishments, the 761st Tank Battalion
would not receive their due credit until April 20, 1978 when President
Carter issued the Presidential Unit Citation to them. It took 52
years before Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers would be awarded a posthumous
Congressional Medal of Honor (January 13, 1997) in a ceremony presided
over by President Clinton.

In “761st,” eleven of these great soldiers recount their experience in
the United States Army, fighting for a freedom overseas that they did
not enjoy in America.

****Please note with the price of admission you are welcome to stay
for the remainder of the the evenings programs:

8:00PM NEWFILMMAKERS SHORT FILM PROGRAM

Naima Lowe BIRTHMARKS (2007, 30 Minutes, 16MM)

BIRTHMARKS is an experimental nonfiction film by Naima Lowe featuring
her father, Bill Lowe. The film tells the story of the series of small
darks scars on Bill’s back that he got when the Newark Police beat him
up in 1967, and the ways that fathers and daughters create beauty out
of trauma, and art out of living.

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